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018 539 172 3 



HoUinger Corp. 
pH 8.5 



60th Congress, ( HOUSE OF REPEESENTATIVES. \ Report 
2d Session. \ ] No. 2142. 



SUBSTITUTE FOR WOOD IN MANUFACTURE OF PAPER 

PULP. 



February 13, 1909. — Comuutted to the Committee of the Whole House on the 
state of the Union and ordered to be printed. 



lis- 

Mr. Stanley, from tlie Committee on Agriculture, submitted the 

following 

REPORT. 

[To accompany H. R. 24328.] 

The Committee on Agriculture, to whom was referred the bill 
(H. R. 24328) to enable the Secretary of Agriculture to conduct 
experiments and determine the practicability of making paper ma- 
terial out of cornstalks, and to erect buildings and purchase appa- 
ratus therefor, submit the following report : 

The preservation of forests and the rapid and increasing exhaus- 
tion of the available supply of timber demand if possible some sub- 
stitute for wood in the manufacture of paper pulp. 

The Department of Agriculture has conducted a number of experi- 
ments in an effort to find some such substitute which can be made 
commercially profitable in the manufacture of paper. Flax, rice, and 
wheat straw, esparto, marsh grasses, cane, bamboo, scrub palms, 
cotton, and cornstalks have all been more or less carefully tested. 
After an extended survey of the whole field the only substance which 
offers any probable solution of this problem is the cornstalk. This 
plant is the only substance yet found which meets all the conditions 
necessary to its substitution for wood in the manufacture of paper. 

It can be obtained in sufficient quantities to supply the enormous 
demand, as this stalk has a large and exceedingly rapid growth and 
is produced over a vast area. 

When treated with caustic soda a long fiber is obtained which can 
be manufactured into an excellent quality of paper and of every 
variety. 

According to the statements of Doctor Galloway : 

[Hearings, Agricultural Committee, pages 81, 82.] 

Mr. Galloway. Ton for ton the amount of pulp from the cornstalks is just 
about the same as from wood, but the pulp from the cornstalks is of a finer 
grade and better quality than that of the ordinary wood pulp. In fact, it is so 
fine that it could be used to a considerable extent for additions to very cheap 



f ^-7 



2 SUBSTITUTE FOR WOOD IN MANUFACTURE OF PAPER PULP. 

woods wliich are not now available for wood pulp. That is tLie idea tbat is 
being developed by the Forest Service ; that i><, in addition to using the corn- 
stalk material directly for paper, it cniild be ^ltilized for supporting or building 
up the cells of vs'ood fiber of very cheap woods which are not now used for pulp. 

Mr. PoLLAFD. Then the paiier made from cornstalks is of better quality than 
that made from wood? 

Mr. Galloway. Our samples show that yon can make all grades of paper, 
from fine velluhi pajier down to thin tissue paper suitable for wrapping butter 
and things of that kind. 

Mr. PIawley. Does it make good writing paper? 

Mr. Galloway. Yes. 

Mr. Cook. I wanted to ask the Doctor this: Do I understand that the same 
quality of paper as that known as print paper or white paper can be made from 
cornstalks jvs-t at.it is made from white spruce? 

Mr. Galloway. Yes, sir. 

The Chaikman. Not only that, but very much tiner paper can be made from 
the cornstalks than is possible to be made from the wood pulp? 

Mr. Galloway. Yes, sir. 

This product can be manufactured more cheaply' than paper. For 
manifest reasons a ton of cornstalks can be reduced to a pulp at a 
much less cost than is necessary to reduce a ton of wood to the same 
condition. The stalk is cut' up with an ordinary shredder or corn 
cutter such as is now used by the farmer, and is ready in this state 
to be treated with caustic soda, a substance which separa'tes the fiber 
from the shive and other substances of like character. 

The stalk is not only more easily reduced to a condition in which 
it can be treated wdth soda, but the process by which it is reduced to 
a pulp by the use of this soda is much less expensive. One of the 
principal items of expense in the manufacture of the better qualities 
of paper— that is, paper manufactured from soda pulp — is this 
chemical used in separating the fiber from other substances. 

Mr. Sutermeister, now in the employ of the Agricultural Depart- 
ment and in charge of a laboratory in which wood-pulp experiments 
are being conducted, made the following statement before the Com- 
mittee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce: 

[Hearings, No. 35, pages 2682, 2683.] 

The Chairman. Have your experiments led you to believe that you can re- 
duce a ton of cornstalks or cotton stalks to pulp by the soda process for less 
than you can reduce a ton of wood for? 

Mr. Sutermeister. With cotton stalks, I should say no. For cornstalks, I 
should say yes. 

The Chairman. How much less? What do you figure it costs per ton? 

Mr. Sutermeister. I could not tell you the cost. The cotton stalks require 
over 30 per cent of caustic soda, whereas we can treat the cornstalks with 18 
per cent. Poplar wood requires 25 per cent. 

A ton of cornstalks will produce approximately a thousand pounds 
of paper-making material, 60 per cent of which will be pith fiber and 
40 per cent long fiber; i. e., fibers about 1.25 millimeters in length, 
and from which the finest papers can be made. From the pith fiber 
papers of less tensile strength are easily manufactured. In speaking 
of this pith fiber, Mr. Sutermeister, in his statement before the Sub- 
committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, on the 22d of Decem- 
ber, 1908, said: 

[Hearings, No. 35, page 2676.] 

Mr. Sutermeister. It can be made into a grease-proof paper. I have made 
this into paper that I wrapped up machine oil in and left it standing overnight, 
and it had not soaked through in the morning. 

Mr. Sims. Paper made from the pith? 

Mr. Sutermeister. From the pith; ye^, sir. 

.• . 21: 1900 *'":.: 

a or a 









SUBSTITUTE FOR WOOD IN MANUFACTURE OF PAPER PULP. 3 

Doctor Cobb, appearing before this committee at the same time, in 
speaking of this substance, said: 

[Hearings, No. 35, pajjes 2722, 2723.] 

Mr. Cobb. There is no doubt it could be used as a substitute for thos3 products 
that iire used in nmking strawbnard or l)oxes or cardboard of various Ivinds. 
The quality of it, however, to my mind, is rather superior to the ordinary 
strawboard. There is considerable strength to it. 

The Chairman. Very little tensile strength to it. 

Mr. Cor.r.. There is just as much strength in it, Mr. Mann, as<lu any amount 
of stuff converted into cardboard boxes. You buy a suit of clothes, and you get 
it bacli in the boxes the stuff of which is not as good as that. I call your atten- 
tion particularly to the effect of pressure on the stuff. This has not been 
bleached to the extent it might be, and there is a possibiliy of it replacing 
article,? that are now made of celluloid. It has this property, which is rather 
striking, and I fancy there can be no doubt it is useful : for instance, you wet it 
and you can bend it, and it will hold the shape. 

BY-PRODUCTS. 

In investigating this matter, the committee is actuated both by a 
desire to find some suitable substitute for wood in the manufacture 
of paper, and, if possible, in the selection of that substitute, to aid, 
as far as possible, the agriculturist. Viewing this question both from 
the view point of the producer and the manufacturer, in the language 
of Doctor Cobb : 

[lloarings, No. .35, pages 2712. 2713.] 

Mr. Cobb. We look at this in the P>ureau of Plant Industry not only from a 
technological point of view, but also from a strictly agricultural point of view. 
Naturjilly, as these are technological problems, we have got to have informa- 
tion on path sides of the question, the manufacturers' point of view as well as 
the growers'. Still, our face is toward the producer most of the time; that is 
what we are supposed to exist for; and while we want to understand these 
problems from the manufacturing point of view, it is particularly for the benefit 
of the grower. Then we took into consideration the fact that maize was a 
plant from which there was the biggest tonnage of stuff that was not utilized 
to advantage — not going to waste, still not utilized to advantage; and combin- 
ing those two, we determined to try out this process of separation, which was 
claimed to be successful, and to try it on corn first. 

It has been thoroughly demonstrated that cornstalks not only fur- 
nish an excellent paper-making material in large quantities and at 
the minimum of cost in its production, but at the same time by a 
process lately perfected by Mr. Sherwood, none of the food value of 
the corn is lost in the process of manufacture. 

[Mearings, Xo. 35, page 2714.] 

Mr. CoBB. If cornstalks were i)oisonous, lilve cotton stalks, we would not ex- 
pect to get anything of value, unless it was a drug. Of course we knew the 
fodder value of cornstalks, and we also knew that one of the principal draw- 
backs to the use of cornstalks as fodder is that the animal has to manage such 
a bulk of nondige.stible matter to .tret the nutriment that its value is much re- 
duced ; in fact, many farmers do not use it at all and allow it to rot in the fields. 
As the paper-mill processes permit the application of high temperature under 
great pressure, it was extremely reasonable to suppose that they might extract 
a maximum amount of this matter that could be used as stock food. 

[riearings. No. 35, page 27] G.] 

The Chairman. He must have been mistaken about that, then. 
Mr. CoBB. Of course I d<^not know what ho said, but at any rate these are 
the facts. There is no question about the food value of this material. 



4 SUBSTITUTE FOR WOOD IX MANUFACTURE OF PAPER PULP, . 

It has been demonstrated that the materials which the corn takes 
from the soil and all the food value of the stalk asphaltum are saved 
to the farmer in the form of a by-product — a valuable stock feed. 
Mr, Sutermeister, an expert chemist, and gentleman of long practical 
experience in the manufacture of paper, says of this by-product : 

[Hearings, No. 35, page 26S2.] 

Mr. SuTERMEisTEE. We can take the cornstalk after it is packed into the di- 
gester, and extract with water, under pressure, and get out an extracted 
material which can be used after evaporation as a cattle fodder. That is, we 
evaporate the extract which we obtain to a semiliquid state and mix it with 
some ground feed, and we get nearly all of the value of the food which is in 
the cornstalk. 

The Chairman. What does that dry matter consist of, chemically? 

Mr. SUTERMEISTEE. It is in large proportion glucose — sugars. T^ere is about 
14 to 15 per cent ash, about 40 per cent glucose, and there is 3 or 4 per cent of 
other sugars. There is about 9 per cent of proteid matter. 

Of this proteid and nitrogenous matter, Doctor Cobb says: 

[Hearings, No. 35, page 2717.] 

Mr. Cobb. There is the nitrogenous matter ; that is valuable food, far more 
valuable than the saccharine matter. 

This same substance extracted from the sugar cane has long been 
used and from practical experience has proven a most excellent feed. 
Doctor Cobb, in speaking of the practical utility of this extract, says : 

[Hearings, No. 35, pages 2717, 2718.] 

Mr. Cobb. In Hawaii they have a very similar product as a result of sugar 
boiling, and that is one of the principal ingredients in the rations for the mules, 
which are the only animals they use on the plantations as draft animals. They 
use this waste molasses, which closely resembles this, with the cane tops, as a 
ration for the mules. They also use it on the cattle ranches in Hawaii. 

Doctor Galloway has made a similar statement before the Agricul- 
tural Committee: 

[Hearings, pages 81-82.] 

Mr. Cook. Is the by-product of the pulp fit for the feeding of stock? 

Mr. Galloway. The by-product is. The by-product is practically the same as 
is now being sold extensively in the South as feed for cattle and mules. We 
import considerable quantities of these molasses from the Cuban sugar factories 
at the present time. Louisiana planters are using large quantities of it, and 
other planters in the country are coming more and more to use it. In fact, 
there are a number of these foreign feed products in the market, the body of 
which are made here from the products of our sugarhouses and our cane mills, 

Mr. GiLHAMS. Then, in the manufacture of paper pulp from cornstalks you 
do not destroy any of the feeding qualities that are in the stalks; those are all 
saved? 

Mr. Galloway. When the animal chews the stalk he practically extracts the 
by-products. 

Mr. GiLHAMS. The feeding qualities are all saved? 

Mr. Galloway. They are all saved. 

Mr. George E.. Sherwood, of Oak Park, 111., has made a very care- 
ful and exhaustive analysis of this substance. 



SUBSTITUTE FOR WOOD IX MANUFACTURE OF PAPER PULP. 5 

[Hearings, No. 35, page 2721.] 

Oak Park, III., June 22, 1908. 
Mr. C. J. Brand, 

Agricultural Department, Washington, D. G. 
Dear Mb. Brand : I inclose herein a sample of food extract from cornstalks. 

Extract contains: Percent. 

Moisture 10. 

Ash 14,3 

Insoluble matter 7. 2 

Protein 9.8 

Sucrose 9. 2 

Glucose •_ 9. 2 

Nonsugars 3. 7 

Mineral matter present (ash) : 

Carbon . dioxide 20. 55 

Chlorine 2. 54 

Sulphur trioxide 8. 26 

Phosphorus pentoxide 6. 61 

Potassa 22. 42 

Soda • 25.47 

Iron and alumina Trace. 

Lime 4. 13 

Magnesia 4. 11 

Matter insoluble in water and acid 5.91 

In practice it will be evaporated to about the consistency of molasses, then 
mixed with ground forage (absorbent), and should be sold to the trade on its 
food value. 

Please note, particularly, that a new industry opeus up on this food extract, 
to wit (after refining), for beer, bread making, for table sirup, etc. I wish to 
call especial attention to this product. This sample is 2 years old. 
Yours, very truly, 

Geo. R. Sherwood. 

The cornstalks, and cornstalks alone, so far as the experhnents of 
the department have gone, are the only substance from which such a 
by-product can be obtained. This feature will strongly incline those 
interested as vitally in agriculture, as in the manufacture of paper, to 
thoroughly test and develop as far as possible this nascent industry. 

If, however, any such products were not obtainable and the corn- 
stalks, like the cotton stalks, were poisonous or of no value except for 
the paper fiber they contained, IT WOULD STILL BE THE BEST 
POSSIBLE SUBSTITUTE FOR WOOD. 

Doctor Galloway makes this exceedingly plain in his statement be- 
fore the Agricultural Committee. 

[Hearings, pa;;e 82.] 

Mr. Pollard. In the event that no utilization can be made of the by-product 
in making paper from cornstalks, then would the cost, of the jnanufacture of the 
paper be so great that it would be prohibitive? 

Mr. Galloway. I do not thinlc so. I think, on the contrary, that it would 
still be feasible and practicable, but I do not see any reason why the by-product 
should not come into extensive use, especially if these factories are established 
in the corn region where we have the animals and the cornstalks to take care 
of the interests in that way ; for instance, if you had such a factory at or near 
Kansas City or any of those places out there where cornstalks are easily avail- 
able, or in the smaller places. 

It is more than probable that this by-product would prove of suffi- 
cient value to pay for the raw material at the factory door, according 
to the statement of Doctor Gallowav: 



b SUBSTITUTE FOR WOOD IN MANUFACTURE OF PAPER PULP. 

[Hearings, page 7980.] 

Mr. Galloway. Tlie chief point of interest in connection with this work is: 
the fact that a by-product is secured in the manufacture of paper from corn- 
stalks which practically pays the expense of the manufacturing process up to 
the time the material is taken out of the digester ; that is, a material that ought 
to sell for about 2 cents a pound. It is a molasses product which will undoubt- 
edly have considerable food value for stock. We are now having tests made by 
the Bureau of Chemistry to determine its value. The idea is to vitilize material 
of this kind and to be in a position to turn the molasses product, the by-product, 
back to the farmers at a reasonable rate. From the figures at hand it would 
appear that about 40 or 50 per cent of paper pulp can be secured from corn- 
stalks, and through the process we are discussing the manufacturer can afford 
to pay about $5 per ton for the raw stalks. 

Doctor Cobb, appearing before the Committee on Interstate and 
Foreign Commerce, makes practically the same statement. . 

[Bulletin No. 35, pages 2724, 2725.] 

Mr. Cobb. I have gone into it several times and have had others go into it, 
and must say have come to a different conclusion from what you have. [Ex- 
hibiting map to committee.] Take in this area, the densest portion of the corn 
belt ; that map shows the distribution of our corn. I believe, from the esti- 
mates I have made, that almost anywhere in that region a mill located at a 
good railway center and not having any discrimination against it could pay in 
the nfiighborhood of $5 a ton for stalks, and that where certain kinds of corn 
are grown, which are very largely grown, Mr. Hartley tells me, that the 
farmers could part with it at $5 a ton, and would do so, if not all of them, 
a sufficient number, in a 75-mile radius, to run a small mill. Roughly, that 
is my present opinion, and you can see I have given you the data on which it 
is based. You see how incomplete it is. We have really only analyzed a 
single corn, and we had to start this under unfavorable conditions as to season 
of the year. 

On a conservative estimate there is a pound and a half to a pound 
and three-fourths of stalk (dry stalk) to the pound of shell corn 
(dry). In the corn belt, an acre of land will produce from 40 to 60 
bushels of corn. At 50 bushels of corn to the acre, you would have 
more than 2 tons of stalks to the acre. These stalks at $5 a ton will 
produce to the farmer $10 a ton in addition to the profit upon his 
corn. Over ordinarily good roads 2 tons of cornstalks can be hauled 
at a load. This price will insure an abundance of cornstalks to any 
mill located in the corn belt at a fair profit to the farmer for de- 
livering the same. 

A further investigation of this interesting question has been pre- 
vented and practical test of the commercial value of the cornstalk 
rendered imjoossible from the fact that the paper mills of the country 
are not supplied with the proper apparatus or the skilled chemists 
necessary to a thorough test of this plant or a practical demonstra- 
tion of its possibility as a substitute for wood. 

It is necessary therefore that the Government should erect a small 
plant in the corn belt where excellent transportation facilities are 
available, and where the stalks can be brought to the factory door at 
a minimum of cost in order that a thorough demonstration of the 
commercial value of this jolant may be secured by skilled experts 
interested alike in obtaining some valuable material for the manufac- 
ture of paper other than wood, and in the betterment of the condition 
of the farmer. 



SUBSTITUTE FOR WOOD IN MANUFACTURE OF PAPER PULP. 7 

In the language of Doctor Cobb : 

(.Hearings, No. '<o, page 27 10.] 

Mr. CoBU. That brings me back to tb^ agricultural point of- view. The rest of 
it, as returned in tlie analysis, is saline or mineral matter. From an agricul- 
tural point of view it is very undesirable to send off from a farm any matter 
that would be of manurial value, and it seems to us, looking at this process as 
carefully as we can, we come repeatedly to the conclusion, no matter from what 
point we begin to reason, that if a paper factory could be started in the corn 
belt at a center where plenty of maize was available, by a system of barter 
which would be a favorable sort of trade, under proper regulations, the farmer 
could get back from the paper mill this stock-food material to use; that would 
be valuable to him again as manure, after feeding to his stock, of course. That 
is, he is depriving his farm only of cellulose matter that does not cost him any- 
thing. He gets that froru the air free of cost. He does not have to pay a cent 
for it. All of these mineral matters contained in this stock food, such as i)otash, 
and so forth, he has to pay for if they are not present on his farm. Supposing 
he gets that back from a paper mill and uses it, he does not lose it. From an 
agricultural point of view it is good practice. 

I Hearings, No. 35, page 2723. 1 • 

The Chairman. Have you any samples that were produced here? 

Mr.' Cobb. Nothing except these hand-made samples at all. 

Mr. Sims. These are not paper. 

Mr. Cobb. No ; they do not claim to be. We have no machine here. That is 
one fault which I found with the Forest Service outfit at the very beginning. 
I said, " You have gone just not far enough. You have put in a small pulp mill, 
but there you have stopped short; you should have put in a small paper mill 
to go with it." 

Doctor Galloway concurs in this opinion of the practicability of 
erecting such a mill and gives an estimate of its probable cost : 

[Hearings, page 80.] 

Mr. Galoway. In this work here in Washington we put everything in to- 
gether, and the statements that have been made, reducing the thing to a prac- 
tical point, are something like this, that at an expenditure of about $20,000 a 
factory could be established anywhere in the great corn belt of the country 
which would necessarily have to draw on cornstalk material for a radius of 
about 5 miles; that is, there would be sufficient material in that radius to 
run the factory for the year through, but at the present price of paper pulp 
such a manufactory ought to pay good dividends. 

It is apparent that this demonstration of the availability of corn- 
stalks as a paper-making material must be made by the Government 
and that it can not and will not be done by the paper mills until the 
forests have been exhausted and these concerns are forced by neces- 
sity to find a substitute. 

These large concerns will not be inclined to change the locations 
of their plants or to alter their machinery until forced to do so by 
lack of available material or from the effect of competition. 

In addition to that, the paper mills are not supplied with skilled 
chemists or experienced scientists capable of making a thorough and 
conclusive demonstration of the possibility of the cornstalk for the 
purposes above mentioned. The inability of the paper mill to per- 
form this service was demonstrated by Doctor Cobb in a recent hear- 
ing before the Interstate and Foreign Commerce Committee, and in 
answer to a question propounded by the chairman : 

The Chairman. If you can send samples of different plants to paper mills 
which have laboratories for them to experiment and report to you, why is not 
that the most satisfactory way of doing it? 



I mill nil! Hill Hill mil mil nm iini «*« in« m" «' 
018 539 172 3 

8 SUBSTITUTE FOE WOOD IN MANUFACTURE OF PAPER PULP. 

Mr. Cobb. It is, provided tliey have the proper facilities ; but I find that while 
they have the very best facilities for ascertaining the cost commercially of the 
different articles which they habitually use, outside of that range their fund of 
information is very small. 

The Chairman. There are only a few who would have them, probably. 

Mr. Cobb. Very few, indeed, I assure you. Experimental work is a very ex- 
pensive thing. No matter how you try to save, if you get at results you have 
to spend money, and these people are simply making money, and they do not 
divert very much of it to experimental work. You can not blame them. 

The manufacture of paper from cornstalks necessitates, as we have 
said, the use of caustic soda. In order to recover this chemical expen- 
sive machinery and large quantities of fuel are necessary. For that 
reason the proposed paper mill should be located at once in the corn 
belt and in a coal field. Western Kentucky, at least that part of it 
bordering on the Ohio River, to an eminent degree meets all the essen- 
tial conditions. Excellent facilities for transportation, both rail and 
water, large areas of river bottom land devoted exclusively to the cul- 
ture of a corn peculiarly adapted for this purpose, and in addition 
to this underlying the whole area are several veins of the finest steam 
coal, which veins are at present highly developed and the coal is avail- 
able at a minimum cost. 

In H. R. 24328 the following amendments are suggested : 
After the word '^' agriculture," in line 5, insert " through the Bureau 
of Plant Industry," and after the word " purchase," in line 8, insert 
" or procure." 

O 



